WCF - Streaming file upload over http

Question

I am trying to build a WCF service that will allow my WPF desktop clients to upload files to a server.

I adapted a code sample from The Code Project (WCF Streaming: Upload/Download Files Over HTTP) and I've looked at several SO posts as well, but can't seem to get this working.

When I execute the code, it fails with a null reference exception at the point that the server tries to read the stream that has been passed through the interface.

At this point, I am rather lost and don't know how to fix this up. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Code samples follow:

CustomerDocumentModel is the data element that I pass through the WCF interface with the stream to read the client side file:

[DataContract]
[KnownType(typeof(System.IO.FileStream))]
public class CustomerDocumentModel : IDisposable
{
    public CustomerDocumentModel()
    {
    }

    public CustomerDocumentModel(string documentName, string path)
    {
        DocumentName = documentName;
        Path = path;
    }

    [DataMember]
    public string DocumentName;

    [DataMember]
    public string Path;

    [DataMember]
    public System.IO.Stream FileByteStream;

    public void Dispose()
    { 
        if (FileByteStream != null)
        {
            FileByteStream.Close();
            FileByteStream = null;
        }
    }
}

IBillingService is the interface definition for my WCF service:

[ServiceContract]
public interface IBillingService
{
    // other methods redacted...

    [OperationContract]
    void UploadCustomerDocument(CustomerDocumentModel model);
}

The class BillingService implements the WCF service:

[AspNetCompatibilityRequirements(RequirementsMode = AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsMode.Allowed)]
public class BillingService : IBillingService
{
    // Other methods redacted ...

    public void UploadCustomerDocument(CustomerDocumentModel model)
    {
        string path = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath(
            String.Format("/Documents/{1}",
                model.DocumentName));

        using (FileStream stream = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None))
        {
            const int bufferSize = 4096;
            byte[] buffer = new byte[bufferSize];

            int size = 0;
            try
            {
                // The following Read() fails with a NullReferenceException
                while ((size = model.FileByteStream.Read(buffer, 0, bufferSize)) > 0)
                {
                    stream.Write(buffer, 0, size);
                }
            }
            catch
            {
                throw;
            }
            finally
            {
            stream.Close();
            model.FileByteStream.Close();
            }
        }
    }
}

A few relevant bits from the web.config on my WCF web server:

<system.web>
    <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0" />
    <httpRuntime maxRequestLength="2097151" useFullyQualifiedRedirectUrl="true" executionTimeout="360"/>
</system.web>

<system.serviceModel>
    <serviceHostingEnvironment
        aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true"
        multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" />
    <bindings>
        <basicHttpBinding>
            <binding name="userHttps" transferMode="Streamed" maxReceivedMessageSize="2147483647" maxBufferSize="2147483647">
                <readerQuotas maxDepth="2147483647" maxStringContentLength="2147483647" maxArrayLength="2147483647" maxBytesPerRead="2147483647" maxNameTableCharCount="2147483647" />
                <security mode="None" />
            </binding>
        </basicHttpBinding>
    </bindings>
    <behaviors>
        <serviceBehaviors>
            <behavior name="">
                <dataContractSerializer maxItemsInObjectGraph="2147483646"/>
                <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true" />
                <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" />
            </behavior>
        </serviceBehaviors>
    </behaviors>
</system.serviceModel>

The client is a WPF/MVVM app that creates a CustomerDocumentModel model, uses an OpenFileDialog to Open() the file stream and then passes the model to the UploadCustomerDocument method on WCF Service.

If I am missing any relevant details, please ask.

Note: solution does not have to be WCF. I will consider other C#/ASP.NET solutions as well. — Paul Chavez

S14df S14df · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-30T19:28:01

I know this rather very late reply for your question and I'm sure you must have resolved your problem as well. This could be helpful to someone else :-)

Use Messagecontract over Datacontract and only one MessageBodyMember with datatype Stream and rest all parameter are MessageHeader. Here is the example:

[MessageContract]

    public class CustomerDocumentModel : IDisposable
    {

        public CustomerDocumentModel(string documentName, string path)
        {
            DocumentName = documentName;
            Path = path;
        }

        [MessageHeader]
        public string DocumentName{get;set;}

        [MessageHeader]
        public string Path{get;set;}

        [MessageBodyMember]
        public System.IO.Stream FileByteStream{get;set;}

        public void Dispose()
        { 
            if (FileByteStream != null)
            {
                FileByteStream.Close();
                FileByteStream = null;
            }
        }
    }

Note: Make sure your in your configuration transfer mode is StreamedResponse, also you may want to change the MessageEncoding to MTOM for better performance.

public void UploadCustomerDocument(CustomerDocumentModel model)
{
        var filename = //your file name and path;
        using (var fs = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Create))

        {
               model.FileByteStream.CopyTo(fs);
        }
}

WCF - Streaming file upload over http

2 Answers